Yusuke Urameshi

"Nothing as trivial as a violent death or a few drops of demon blood mixed in with mine is going to keep me from helping out my friends and saving the world, and kicking the bad guy's ass."
— Yusuke Urameshi

Yusuke Urameshi (浦飯 幽助, Urameshi Yūsuke) is the main protagonist of the manga & anime series YuYu Hakusho. He is a Spirit Detective who is tasked with protecting Human World from various supernatural threats over the course of the series. His closest friends and greatest allies include Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, Keiko, Genkai, Koenma and Botan. He is also the de facto leader of Team Urameshi and the general person to look to when the going gets tough.

At the start of the series, Yusuke is a teenage delinquent with little to no positive qualities to his character. Over the course of the series, he starts becoming a better person, changing into an almost altruistic defender of the Human World.

He is voiced by Nozomu Sasaki in the original Japanese and Justin Cook in FUNimation's dub.

Contents

Appearance

Yusuke has black hair, usually slicked back with gel, with brown eyes. He has a peach to tan skin complexion and has a skinny but lean, muscular body.

He wears a green jumpsuit with yellow buttons and black shoes (a substitute for the blue school uniform he should be wearing). At the Dark Tournament, he wears a red jacket (with yellow tinted cuffs and collar) over a white shirt, along with jeans and white sneakers. When actually fighting, he switches to a yellow sleeveless shirt and blue pants, with black shoes, a black karate belt and green wristbands. At the beginning of the Chapter Black arc, he wears his red jacket look, replacing it with a dark green suit jacket. In his fight against Sensui, he was seen without the green suit jacket as his white shirt that he wears was now loose. During the final arc, he returns to the complete red jacket look and when fighting in the tournament, dons a fully white-clad karate uniform, complete with a green sash around the waist and black shoes. He is also seen wearing a complete dark blue suit with grey pants, black shoes and a white undershirt when visiting Kuroko Sanada.

In some episodes, his hair became messier when it's not slicked back, like when his body was taken care by Keiko until his revival or in his first fight against Chu in the Dark Tournament.

When his demon blood is awakened, he has long black hair (white when possessed by Raizen in the anime) and demonic markings on his face, arms and chest.

Personality

Having a no-show for a father and with his mother always off somewhere else (getting drunk or partying), Yusuke has grown up in a very neglectful environment. He's short tempered, impulsive, and likes to intimidate those who are afraid of him. Underneath his bold, cocky attitude, he has a joking and kind nature.

Yusuke has also had the bad luck of having to deal with so many cruel and despicable people at such a young age. Iwamoto being among them.

One of his most notable traits is his desire to fight, which becomes more noticeable as the series progresses. Yusuke has been noted on many occasions to be rather unintelligent, and, at times, just plain stupid. However, as his teacher Genkai later notes, he "can be a genius at fighting". Yusuke's desire to fight is more out of enjoyment of a good brawl, and surprisingly Yusuke doesn't like killing if he can avoid it.

Even though Yusuke is feared by most students and severely disliked by almost all of the teachers, he is generally misunderstood. Keiko Yukimura, one of his childhood friends (and later love interest), is one of the very few who knows Yusuke is actually very kind, and she sympathizes with his problems in life. Yusuke also becomes very protective of his friends, especially Keiko, Botan, Koenma, Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei. Out of all the six mentioned, though, Younger Toguro notes that Yusuke is "the most protective" of Kuwabara, most likely because Yusuke knew him longer than Hiei and Kurama, and also because of the frailty of Kuwabara's human heritage.

Synopsis

Yusuke's Father mentioned spanking Yusuke in his childhood to teach him discipline. Yusuke is also shown in a flashback during the Dark Tournament Saga as a Kindergartner on a playground. As his friends leave one by one till all of them are gone, a toddler Keiko comes over and says that they should go home and extends her hand towards him to which he agrees. They are later shown after a timeskip of a few years with Yusuke racing ahead of Keiko, shouting that mealons and watermealons are the same thing. He then stops and calls out to Keiko to come over so that he could give her a spanking and loses his foothold, falling into the water. Keiko then calls him an idiot and says that thats why she told him that they should go home .

Spirit Detective Saga

Yusuke Urameshi is 14 years old at the start of YuYu Hakusho. He is the toughest student at Sarayashiki Junior High School and fights and defeats Kuwabara on a frequent basis. He is a stereotypical bad kid, with a bad attendance record and picks fights with other kids at school. In the manga, he is even revealed to be smoking, gambling and drinking.[3]

Yusuke about to be hit by a car in trying to save a boy

While skipping school and being berated by his mother, Yusuke loafs around the town. Yusuke entertains a child by making silly faces, but when the kid wanders into the street in front of an oncoming car, Yusuke shoves him out of the way. He is struck by the car, and killed.[4] As a ghost, Yusuke is greeted by an atypical version of the Grim Reaper; a bubbly, cheerful young woman named Botan.[5] She informs Yusuke that no one in Spirit World had expected him to die, risking his life to save the little boy. The boy would've survived; Thus, Yusuke's interference was unneccesary and only resulted in the kid having a minor scratch. They have no place for him in the afterlife because of his abrupt death. The Spirit World is also amazed how Yusuke, known for his bad attitude, could save a boy, and for these reasons, he was given the chace to live again. Botan remarks that Yusuke can return to life, but he initially declines.[6]

Yusuke's mind changes after he attends his wake, where people he knows pay their condolences to his mother. Atsuko (Yusuke's mother) is extremely distraught & borderline catatonic about losing her son. Keiko Yukimura (his classmate) sobs uncontrollably, yelling Yusuke's name. Kuwabara appears, angry and upset that Yusuke died before they could finish their battles. When two of Yusuke's teachers belittle him at the wake, Mr. Takenaka, another teacher, berates them for insulting him. He pays his respects to Atsuko and sobs at Yusuke's passing; only then, Atsuko reacts, collapsing in tears at the mention of Yusuke. Lastly, the child whom Yusuke saved and his mother show up, and when the child asks if he can play again with Yusuke, his mother cries and hugs him. Understanding that he meant more to others than they let on, he decides to come back.

Yusuke is given an egg by Koenma, acting lord of Spirit World (in place of his father, who often left to work in other places), and is told that it will hatch a Spirit Beast, which will help him get back to life. However, he must be a genuinely good person. If he is evil, the beast will devour him. While in the anime Yusuke only accomplishes two good deeds, he does a lot more in the manga due to the timeline of events being more stretched out in the manga. This includes helping a boy named Shouta get over his dog's death, helping a girl who had died get over her obsession with a boy (who didn't really care for her) so she can move on, and also being temporarily revived to keep his body fresh so it won't die out. The last deed inolves not allowing Keiko to know about this, though Kuwabara encounters him and Yusuke explains to him what is happening before he returns to being a ghost. Keiko, who had received dreams and messages from Yusuke's ghost telling her he would be returning to life, needed to take care of his body so that he would be able to return to it. However, a fire starts in Yusuke's home and his body runs the risk of being incinerated. Keiko runs into the fire to protect it, and is trapped in the fire. Yusuke gave up all the power gained from his good deeds after his death to have Koenma save her. Koenma used this to put out some of the flames and opened up a path for her to escape from the fire.

Keiko kissing Yusuke to resurrect him

Due to this incident, with Koenma directly in contact with Yusuke's soul, he figured that the wave cycle of Yusuke's power is extremely long and has to meet the right time to be resurrected or he would have to wait for another fifty-two years (fifty years in the Japanese version and English manga)[7] before the next chance and decided to let Yusuke return to life earlier even though the fire incident should have delayed the process since his power gained from good deeds were used up (In the manga, Yusuke had to go through one more good deed to be eligible for this by possessing an old acquaintance named Matsuo Suekichi to help him gain the confidence to achieve his dream of becoming a boxer). The only way for Yusuke to be resurrected is by a kiss from someone who is very close to him until midnight. Yusuke could tell, by dream, to three people he knew in order to do this, but he only told Keiko and Kuwabara since his mother started drinking and would not go to bed. Kuwabara did not believe the dream, due to its homosexuality, and Keiko got delayed by her mother's illness. Botan possessed Keiko's mother to leave a message saying Yusuke was in a more dire state than she was. Keiko manages to kiss Yusuke in time, and Yusuke is returned to life.

After returning, Yusuke is surprised to notice a demon inhabiting the body of a street punk. Botan shows up and tells Yusuke that his experience with death allowed him to do these things. He is to become Earth's Spirit Detective, and protect the human race from demons by solving cases involved with the apparitions.

Artifact Recovery Arc

Yusuke bound by Hiei's Jagan Tie Curse

Yusuke engages in many difficult trials in his first assignments as Spirit Detective. The first is to recover three stolen artifacts from Spirit World. Koenma trains him by teaching him how to fire his spirit energy, energy possessed by humans and spirits, as a weapon. This technique is called the Spirit Gun, and becomes the signature attack of Yusuke. Yusuke attempts to combat these three thieves: Goki, who stole a soul-stealing article called the Orb of Baast; Kurama, who stole a mirror called the Forlorn Hope; and Hiei, who stole the Sword of Shadows. Yusuke was able to defeat Goki the the aid of Botan (anime only) and his Spirit Gun. Kurama willingly turns over the Forlorn Hope, as he only wanted to use its power to save his mother's life. Kurama intended to sacrifice his life for the mirror to save hers, but Yusuke selflessly asked the mirror to take his so Kurama can enjoy his mother's life. The mirror granted Kurama's wish, taking half of each of their life force, but killing neither, and Yusuke took the mirror. Yusuke and Botan then went to fight Hiei, who kidnapped Keiko and tried to turn her into a demon by slashing her with the stolen sword. While Botan staved off the transformation, Yusuke fought the extremely-fast demon, and managed to defeat him by reflecting his Spirit Gun off of the Forlorn Hope, intentionally missing Hiei to strike it and causing the arrogant demon to believe Yusuke missed. They found the antidoite in the hilt of the sword to stop Keiko's transformation. After the ordeal, Yusuke turned over the three artifacts to Koenma.

Rando Arc

Yusuke vs. Rando

Yusuke then was sent to the compound of Genkai, an aged, experienced fighter who was looking for a successor to her powerful Spirit Wave technique (Reikō Hadō Ken or Spirit Light Wave Fist in the original Japanese version). To decide her successor she decided to hold a tournament which Yusuke and Kuwabara enter. But Botan warned Yusuke that a demon named Rando would probably try to inherit her technique and it was his job to stop him. Yusuke fought through her tournament and defeated Rando in the end (out of luck), becoming her successor. For the next two weeks (in the Japanese anime, it is a month and in the English anime, it is six months), Yusuke undergoes tough training with Genkai. As a result, his strength radically heightens, push him from a D-class to a C-class.

Saint Beasts Arc

Yusuke uses his Spirit Energy against Suzaku.

Yusuke was then sent to Maze Castle in Demon Cityto defeat the Four Saint Beastsand stop them from taking over the human race with demon parasites. Kuwabara decided to go with Yusuke, and Koenma sent Kurama and Hiei, who were on probation in the human world, to assist. Yusuke and the others fought their way to Suzaku, the leader of the group, and Yusuke managed to defeat him, but at the cost of his own life energy. Kuwabara, the only human of the group, saved him by transferring part of his own life energy.

Yukina Rescue Arc

Yusuke and Kuwabara fight the Toguros (Younger and Elder Toguro) to rescue Yukina

Yusuke then goes with Kuwabara (and Botan in the anime) to rescue a beautiful ice apparition named Yukina, of whom Kuwabara becomes smitten. However, Yukina is actually Hiei's twin sister, a fact that Kuwabara and even Yukina herself is unaware of. Yusuke fights all the way to the Toguro brothers. Yusuke and Kuwabara defeat them with teamwork and rescue the maiden, but it turns out that the Toguros threw the fight on purpose. The younger Toguro brother coerces Yusuke to join the Dark Tournament (Ankoku Būtsukai or Black Martial Arts Tournament in the original Japanese) and defeat him in a real fight.

Dark Tournament Saga

To prepare for the Dark Tournament, Yusuke trains with Genkai for two months, moving him from a middle C class to an upper C class. Afterwards, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei, along with Genkai as 'The Masked Fighter', enter the Dark Tournament as the guest team, Team Urameshi. Often at times barely escaping out of the fights alive, and despite heavy bias against them by the tournament committee, they fight their way to the final of the tournament to face Team Toguro.

Preparing the Spirit Gun

During the semis, Genkai transfers most of her Spirit Energy through the Spirit Wave Orb so Yusuke can stand a chance against Younger Toguro, moving him from a lower B class to a middle B class. Before the finals begin, Genkai and Toguro face off in an attempt to kill one another. It is revealed that Toguro was Genkai's partner from a previous tournament. After suffering a mortal wound, Genkai, with the last of her strength, explains that when they won the tournament fifty years ago, Toguro, who was once human, had his body become a demon's in order to preserve his strength and youth. Before dying, Genkai warns Yusuke not to become like Toguro. Yusuke becomes furious with Toguro over his master's death and vows to defeat him.

Victorious over Chuu

In the finals, Yusuke now faces Toguro. However after Toguro reveals his full power, Yusuke could not defeat him no matter how hard he tried. In order to bring out Yusuke's hidden power, Toguro kills Kuwabara. The trauma of witnessing one of his best friends actually go down brings Yusuke from a middle B to an upper B. Yusuke prepares his final spirit gun while Toguro undergoes another power up, bringing him from what was actually about 85% of his strength to 100% of his strength (In the Japanese version, Toguro had powered himself up to 120%, whereas in the English dub he reveals that what he initally had said was 100% was more like 85%). After unleashing their attacks, Yusuke comes out on top, overpowering Toguro with his full potential. It is revealed that Kuwabara faked his death to bring out Yusuke's power; when Yusuke finds out he beats him up in a fury. Before they leave the island, Koenma revives Genkai, much to the surprise and joy to everyone.

The others he fought in previous rounds were (read the profile of each character by clicking on their names/links for more information about their fight with Yusuke):

Round 1 - Chu (defeated by a strong headbutt in a knife edge deathmatch after Chu and Yusuke depleted their spirit enegy).

together with Kuwabara and Genkai, with Genkai doing the last move to remove the brainwashing done by Dr. Ichigaki to his team. Yusuke managed to regain his spirit energy in this round after it was depleted with Chu's fight earlier)

Round 3 - Bakken (or Bakuken - defeated with numerous punches after Bakken tried to cover the stadium with a fog) and Jin (defeated when Yusuke used his Spirit Wave Technique)

Chapter Black Arc

In this arc, Yusuke must stop Shinobu Sensui and his other 6 psychic companions (also known as Sensui Seven) from opening a gate to demon world. He was initially captured by Kido, Yanagisawa, and Kaito but were later rescued by Kurama, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Botan. The kidnapping was masterminded by Genkai as a test.

Yusuke vs Doctor

Yusuke later fights and defeats Doctor, one of Sensui's psychics, when he infected many people in the hospital with his insects. After Sensui and Sniper appears and kidnaps Kuwabara, Yusuke chased them to their lair. He was later helped by Hiei to defeat Sniper. Together with Hiei, Kurama, Seaman (once a companion of Sensui but now their ally), Genkai, Yanagisawa, and Kaito, they defeated Gamemaster in his games to be able to face Sensui and to stop the opening of the portal between human and demon world.

At first, Sensui holds the upper hand due to his superb martial art skills but Yusuke later was able to evolve his own fighting technique to match Sensui. Sensui then released his other personality (called Kazuya) and shot through Yusuke with his now right hand turned into a gun. As Yusuke was recuperating, Koenma appeared and tried to stop Sensui by erecting a barrier (Mafuken) to trap him. At first, Yusuke snatched the pacifier from Koenma to prevent him from erecting a barrier to finish his fight with Sensui. Later, Sensui snatched the pacifier from Yusuke but this enabled Koenma to activate the Mafuken in proximity to Sensui. Sensui broke through the barrier by using Sacred energy and becoming an S-Class .

When Yusuke realizes he cannot defeat Sensui's true self, only possessing lower A class power against Sensui's low S-class power, he decides to have Sensui kill him to awake Hiei, Kurama, and Kuwabara's hidden potential. Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama, has their powers awakened to A class due to Yusuke's death and pursues Sensui. When Sensui crossed over the barrier of A and S class (he was a human and only demons are restricted), Kuwabara cut the barrier with his dimensional sword so Hiei and Kurama can accompany him to avenge Yusuke's death. They later followed Sensui up to theDemon Worldwhere they joined together to fight him, but to their regret, were still no match for Sensui's S Class strength.

Meanwhile, after Yusuke dies, his ancestral demonic blood resurrects him and boosts his power to lower S class demon power. It is revealed that he is a Mazoku, or a descendant of a Yōkai Clan (the Amazaku demons in the English dub), his ancestor Raizen having conceived a child with a human woman. Raizen made it so that when the stars reach a certain alignment, and his descendant is worthy of awakening, they would become a yōkai. When Yusuke died the first time, he was too weak to awaken the yokai blood within him. It was his subsequent missions afterwards, especially his fight against the younger Toguro, that wove and mended this deficiency. Hence, his death at the hands of Sensui caused him to come back as a mazoku demon, pushing him to S class power.

Sensui against Mazoku Yusuke

Yusuke (with Raizen taking control of his body to unlock his power) charges his Demon Mega Gun to defeat Sensui

After this transformation, he fights Sensui in the Demon World . Even with his new demon energy he still cannot defeat Sensui, until he is then possessed by his Raizen (his demon ancestor) to help control his new-found power. This causes Yusuke's body to transform yet again, gaining demonic eyes and long white hair, and bringing out his potential power, boosting him to Upper S Class demon power, which is now more powerful than Sensui's S Class.

As a result, Raizen, through Yusuke's body, kills Sensui which upsets Yusuke greatly. So much in fact, Yusuke wanted to track down Raizen over the ordeal, thinking that if he was to kill a human like Sensui, he should have been the one to make the decision, not his ancestor.

After the fight, Koenma then informed him that the passage way to the living world and the demon world was closing. He presented Yusuke with a choice; stay in the demon world forever (to hunt his ancestor if he wants), or return to his home. Yusuke chose the latter in the end and returned to Human World.

Three Kings Arc

Yusuke as a Mazoku.

Yusuke is removed from his position as Spirit Detective because he is considered too dangerous for the Human Realm. The Great Emperor Enma (King Yama in the English anime) wants Yusuke dead so that he does not become as dangerous as Sensui. In the beginning of the season, Yusuke is forced to live his normal life in human world. However, he is troubled with what to make of his new identity as a demon. Koenma advices him to go to Genkai, who sends him to a former spirit detectve, Kuroko Sanada. During this conversation, Raizen sends three of his advisors inviting Yusuke to return to Demon World. Yusuke agrees to do so (since Raizen interrupted his match against Sensui and wants revenge). He then prepares to go to the Demon World.

Before he left, he personally met up with Keiko to bid farewell. He proposes marriage to Keiko and promises that he will return in three years time. When Keiko doubts his marriage proposal (since Yusuke had jokingly proposed numerous times before), Yusuke said that he is now serious this time. Keiko still loves Yusuke so much and at heart, decides to wait for his return. Yusuke then has the others (Kuwabara, Botan, Genkai, Hiei, Kurama, Yukina, Shizuru) meet at Genkai's temple for a farewell meeting.

After meeting Raizen when he went to the Demon World (the gate has been opened temporarily by Special Defense Force thinking to get rid of him from the Human World), he learns that Raizen is dying because he needs to eat humans to survive, which he gave up after he met a female doctor who is Yusuke's ancestor. Yusuke fights him, but loses to him quite easily; then learns that Mukuro and Yomi are just as strong as the current, and weakened, Raizen. Yomi and Mukuro are the powerful demons who, along with Raizen, compete with one another for the domination of the Demon World

After a year of training Yusuke, Raizen dies, but reveals to Yusuke that if he had eaten humans he would have already been the strongest yōkai. Yusuke chooses to hold a tournament, since he knows he is incapable of ruling Raizen's territory. He easily passes the tournaments preliminaries, before defeating Nekobaba in the first round and then an unseen demon called Toboso in the second round.

In the third round, Yusuke is paired up against Yomi.

Yusuke vs. Yomi

During his match against Yomi, Yusuke suddenly realizes he has lost his purpose, and questions why he is fighting. He used to fight because as a child, he had been angry and neglected, and took out his anger by fighting. Then he became a Spirit Detective and fought powerful men such as Toguro and Sensui to save the world, although they were actually looking for someone more powerful to defeat them. Yusuke wonders whether he is now just waiting for someone to defeat him, now that his anger is gone and all he has is fighting, but Raizen's voices comes back and refreshes his mind. He remembers that he is fighting, not just to find his own identity, but for the sake of his friends as well.

From this renewed strength, Yusuke discovers a new seikouki (or different form of energy which bears similarity in appearance to Sensui's Sacred Energy), and the fight between him and Yomi comes down to one punch. Rushing at each other, the fight would have been a tie, except that Yomi was able to continue standing because of an impromptu shout from Shura. Yusuke falls unconscious and doesn't awaken until after the tournament ends. However, because he severely damaged Yomi in their fight, Yomi lost in the next rounds. Enki, Raizen's friend, won the tournament and became the Demon World King. For his new law, he forbade the demons to do evil or mischief in the Human World, which pre-empted the taking down of the barrier between the Human and the Demon World.

Yusuke and Keiko kissing at the final episode (ep. 112) of the anime

Afterwards, Yusuke leaves the Makai plane shortly between the time after the tournament ends and before his three years are up. He returns again to the Human World and meets up with Keiko on a beach, where they kiss together at the conclusion of the anime.

Final Chapters in the Manga

Some variations exist between the endings of anime and manga, but they still have the same over-all theme of Yusuke returning to the Human World and reuniting with Keiko at last.

At the final chapters of the manga, sometime after the end of the Demon World Tournament, he opened a ramen booth through which he secretly continued his Spirit Detective business, but due to better relations between humans and demons, most of the work he received are getting signatures from the Cult Trio (Koto, Juri, and Ruka). This makes Yusuke ponder if it will just be a normal ramen booth after all, as he is visited by Keiko, Kuwabara, and Yukina. He also learns that Koenma overthrew his father after discovering his father's crimes of brainwashing weak demons to make them attack humans and portray the Spirit World as the Human World's protectors. This caused the barrier to be taken down and for any animosity between Yusuke and Spirit World to cease to exist as he and Koenma never stopped being friends after Yusuke became a demon (save for the religious sect that tried to cause a revolution but were defeated).

Yusuke in the final episode of the anime

Yusuke's last case in the manga (chapter 174) is saving Koenma, Botan and a hundred other spirits when a radical Spirit World religous sect took over the Gates of Judgment in the Spirit World to "purify" the Human world. Since the gate between the human and the demon world are now open, demons are now able to go to the human world though they are now not permtted to do mischief and evil deeds there by the new Demon World leader Enki. Because of this, this religous sect wants to remove all demons in the Human world and took hostage Koenma and other spirits. If their desire is not met, they threatened to kill all the hostages and also to fire an Interdimensional Laser at the Human world to destroy it.

Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, and Kuwabara managed to infiltrate the Gates of Judgment and defeated the terrorists. One of the terrorist explained to Yusuke that in order to stop the Interdimensional Laser from firing, he would need to press the one right button out of the three buttons present in the machine (colored red, blue, and yellow). One button would stop the machine, one would kill the souls of anyone inside the Spirit World's Gates of Judgment (including his own soul), and one would immediately fire the Laser at the Human World. Yusuke ordered everyone to evacuate the Gates of Judgment while he decided which switch to press. However, Koenma, Hiei, and Pu are seen remaining secretly in the Gates while he deliberated. Yusuke's decision which button to push was revealed next chapter.

In the final chapter of the manga (chapter 175), while Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Keiko, Botan, and Yukina were on a beach, Kuwabara explained to Keiko and the others (while Yusuke is far out in the beach away from them) that Yusuke chose the blue colored button. Yusuke's reason was simple: Blue is Keiko's favorite color. Yusuke said that if the kidnappers have their "god", then he has his own "goddess" (the term he used to refer to Keiko). Therefore, he chose the blue button. Luckily, it was the right button to stop the Laser. After learning this, Keiko confirms once and for all that Yusuke really loves her very much. She then chases Yusuke far out in the beach and happily plays with him with the ocean waves. This is where the kissing scene in the last episode of the anime could have happened.

In the bonus OVA it is revealed that he enters the second Makai Tournament with Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei by his side.

Equipment

Spiritual Peering Lenses: One of the first items Yusuke gets to help him out as a spirit detective, it is able to see hidden items in clothing and implied to see through clothes. It is stopped being used after the first arc, as the enemies focus more on combat than retrieving items.

Spectral Energy Meter: One of the first items Yusuke gets to help him out as a spirit detective, it is able to locate identified demons no matter how far they are, however it breaks after sensing Rando implying it is useless on C class and higher ranked demons.

Spiritual Shooting Ring: One of the first items Yusuke gets to help him out as a spirit detective, it is able to boost his offensive spiritual energy at the cost of exhaustion. It is implied to be removed after Yusuke trains hard enough under Genkai to fight C-class demons and higher.

Powers and Abilities

Super Human Stamina: Yusuke has shown feats of stamina and endurance beyond that of a human multiple times, and after his Mazoku rebirth he displayed an even higher level of stamina. His most notable is where he is shown running for 3-5 days straight at high speeds along side Hokushin and Touou, while the two monks are exhausted Yusuke is fine, he went to fight Raizen afterwards.

Super Human/Enhanced Strengh: While not present at the start of the anime/manga, Yusuke is clearly stronger than all of his peers and most adults. At age 14, he was shown as strong enough to hurt Goki in his human form, later he is shown to be strong enough to create a sharp 'wind blade' by just using his full strengh in a punch. During the Chapter Black arc, Yusukes punch at 1/3 strength was capable to knocking out amateur boxer Moruta with merely it's shock wave.

Super Speed: Yusuke has shown multiple instances of super speed. During the Artifact Retrivel arc his rage increased his speed to Hiei's level, and he was show to able to follow Hiei even in his Jagan/full demon form. Another show of his speed was when Hiei attacked him in order to test him when they met up for the dark tournament. While battling sensui, Yusuke move at incredible speeds faster than Hiei.

Power Sphere Fusion: In the second movie, Yusuke is shown to be able to control and convert the energy in the power sphere to Spirit Energy, something which even King Enma couldn't accomplish.[ Not to be confused with the attack which has the same name]

Fighting Style

Yusuke enjoys a good brawl, and seems to prefer fighting with his fists, though he specializes in long range projectile techniques that destroy foes from a distance or many foes at once. Thus when he fights to defeat the opponent, for the sake of efficiency he will tend to strike from afar with his spiritual projectiles (when using Spirit Gun, his face rarely shows the satisfaction he has when fist-fighting), but will fight using his physical skills if he wants to enjoy a good battle. A tactic he sometimes employs is to fight with his fists at close range, and once the opponent leaps back to dodge an attack, Yusuke will shoot a Spirit Gun at them.

While Yusuke prefers to use his fists in a fight, he will use any type of blow (punch or kick) to attack his opponent like when he kicked the Younger Toguro in the face to attack and avoid Tuguro's punch. Yusuke is also a fan of mixed martial arts and it seems likely that he has taken more than a few moves from watching matches. Unless he is in a dangerous situation, Yusuke is a very aggressive fighter and rarely thinks before making a move, even firing a Spirit Gun at Sensui and realizing too late it may harm Kuwabara. Overall, One would describe Yusuke as an instictive fighter. His ability to read and attack his opponents comes from a high innate fighting sense rather than practiced study.

Due to his experience as a delinquent, Yusuke knows quite a few street-fighting techniques. He has a very hard head, which results in a very powerful headbutt, which is apparently stronger than Chu's who's own headbutt was known to have broken rocks. He also has a body blow rush technique called the Intestine Killer. Shura and Yomi describe him as using "No cheap moves or any real form to his fighting at all." and "He fights simply to enjoy the true nature of it."

Due to his relative weakness compared to demons, initially he defeated his enemies by outsmarting them (i.e. Goki) or by sheer luck (i.e. Rando ). In later battles, this is not emphasized as much, and tends to defeat his foes with his strength or a boost of power he gains from a dire situation or from rage.

Known Techniques/Moves

Yusuke charging his spirit gun

Spirit-Gun (霊丸, Reigan, Rei-Gun in the Viz translation): This is Yusuke's signature move. He concentrates his Spirit Energy into his right index finger and releases it as a projectile. After channeling his energy, he pulls the trigger in his mind when he wants to fire the "bullet." The Spirit-Gun blast can range in size from a small shot (at this point it was only twice as strong as his punch), to a full-sized cannon blast, to a near atomic-explosion, as demonstrated in the demon world tournament.

Spirit Gun

Initially, Yusuke can only fire the spirit gun a limited number of times per day. At first, early in his commission as Spirit Detective, he can only use it once per day, but by the beginning of the Dark Tournament, after rigorous training under Genkai, Yusuke can use it four times per day. After this, the number of bullets did not increase, but the strength of the individual bullets did. Eventually he gains the ability to shoot the spirit gun with virtually unlimited ammo in the anime, as shown in his fight against Yomi. It was originally given to him by Spirit World to fight off demons as required during his cases, but later becomes his signature move. Yusuke can deliberately weaken his gun so that it merely stuns the opponent rather than kill them, as shown by its use on Kuwabara.

Spirit Gun Mega

Spirit-Gun Mega(超霊丸, Chō Reigan lit. Super Spirit Gun): In his battle against the Younger Toguro, Yusuke uses up all his remaining energy to summon a gigantic energy bullet. Though unnamed in both the anime and manga, it is called such in the games.

Yusuke charging his demon gun

Demon-Gun (妖丸, Yōgan): This is the demon energy version of the Spirit-Gun. After he is reborn as the Mazoku, Yusuke gains the ability to fire his demon energy from his index finger. It is a vastly powerful attack. Yusuke fires a concentrated crimson blast of powerful demon energy that inflicts greater damage than a normal Spirit Gun did prior to his transformation. By the end of the series Yusuke is able to fire both his spirit and demon gun with virtually unlimited ammo, so long as he has energy. It is unnamed in all versions.

Demon Gun Mega

Demon Gun Mega (超妖丸, Chō Yōgan lit. Super Demon Gun): An ultimate version of his Spirit Gun, where an intense concentration of energy is released to create a devastating energy attack capable of annihilating anything. He first uses this upon receiving Raizen's power, and kills Shinobu Sensui with it while under Raizen's control. It is unnamed in the manga and anime, but called Demonic Spirit Gun in the card game.

Yusuke's Shotgun

Spirit Shotgun (ショットガン, Shottogan, Shotgun Blast in the Viz translation): Yusuke gathers spirit energy into his fist to form a large blast of spirit energy from it to shoot out in less powerful but many blasts. While the technique is not as powerful as the Spirit Gun, a few advantages it has is that the shots are widespread, which makes it highly effective against quick or invisible opponents or large numbers of weak enemies. Yusuke first used this technique against a group of thugs, who were controlled by the Demon World Insects. It may not be the same technique, but Yusuke used a punch with multiple spirit gun blasts (used on Yomi but had no effect probably because spirit shotgun has weaker bullets.)

Yusuke infuses his energy

Spirit Punch : Though primarily a long distance fighter, in close combat, Yusuke is able to infuse parts of his body with Spirit Energy in an effort to enhance his ability in physical combat, especially his punches, but he does the same to his feet in the Tournament Tactics video game. The coating of spirit energy around his hands also can serve as a barrier to defend against projectile attacks such as Suzaku's arrows. It is unnamed in both versions, but is called as such in the video game, and is called "Spirit Fist" in the card game. He is once seen using Spirit Energy to strengthen his foot as well.

Spirit Kick

Spirit Kick: Along with Kuwabara, he is seen surrounding his foot with energy to strengthen his kicks to knock out the Third Ogre. In the manga it is just a regular kick, and Gokumonki was just weak. This was carried off into the GBA game as Kuwabara's counterpart to Yusuke's Spirit Punch.

Yusuke's Spirit Gun Barrage

Spirit Gun Barrage (霊丸連射, Reigan Rensha, translated as Spirit Gun Rapid-fire/Chain Shot or Spirit Gun Double, Rapidfire in the Viz translation): Yusuke shoots two Spirit Guns in rapidfire. This technique has more force than the combined power of two Spirit Guns due to the fact that the second bullet pushes the first bullet as well, giving it more offensive power, to the point it could pierce Chu's giant Demon Energy Ball (Chu comments that the force of a single Spirit Gun would have been consumed). This technique was only used against Chu in the finals of the first round of the Dark Tournament by using Yusuke's remaining Spirit Gun shots together. While not mentioned in the English anime, a side effect from using this advanced technique caused Yusuke to temporarily lose the ability to use his Spirit Gun prior to the match against the Dr. Ichigaki Team due to his inexperience at manipulating Spirit Energy. Later in the anime, Yusuke uses a variation of this when he tries to break though Yomi's Demon Energy Absorption Wall during the Demon World Tournament.

Yusuke prepares the Spirit Wave.

Spirit Wave (霊光弾, Reikōdan, translates as Spirit Light Bullet, Aura Blast in the Viz translation): Yusuke uses it to turn his entire body into a catalyst for his Spirit Energy. Instead of using his index finger to focus energy, Yusuke uses his entire body for this attack. This makes for extremely-powerful close-range attacks that negate the opponent's attack, but it's extremely difficult and dangerous to use. This was first seen being used against Jin in the Dark Tournament Saga. He tried using this against Sensui, in the original Japanese version, but was kicked out of range before he could do anything. It also has some healing properties, as he is able to heal from the wounds Kazuya inflicted when he shot at him, close range. Not to be confused with Genkai's Fighting Style, or Genkai's purification technique, which all share the same name in the English dub.

Genkai's Spirit Cuffs

Spirit Cuffs (呪霊錠･修の行, Jū Rei Jō: Shu no Gyō, translated as Cursed Spirit Shackles: Path of Training, or Aura Locks and Aura Handcuffs in the VIZ manga): Genkai placed these on Yusuke in order to increase his spirit energy reserves, a bearer of these cuffs needs to actively cycle spirit energy throughout their entire body in order to simply move, let alone fight. It is released with Ante in original Japanese; released with the command Avitus in the English dub or released with the command Ante Up in the VIZ Manga.

Yusuke's Demon Form

Transformation: After his atavism, Yusuke temporarily transforms into this Raizen-inspired demon form whenever his emotions, most likely negative ones like anger, run high. Raizen took over Yusuke's body without Yusuke's will to do so, as Raizen believed he would've lost to Sensui otherwise. The full strength of this form is unknown, but it greatly increased his speed and strength to easily dominate against an opponent who had a slight advantage over him. Given Yusuke's statement about his strength and Sensui's being nowhere near what it was during his possession, it can be assumed it would be equal to Raizen's strength at that point. In the manga, Yusuke's hair color stays the same as normal while in the anime, it turns white to match Raizen's hair.

During the Dark Tournament, Yusuke told Koenma he can create explosive bursts of Spirit Energy and focus them on a target, but never demonstrated this ability (Koenma describes this as the most basic of basics).

Anime-Specific Techniques

Yusuke's unique Sacred Energy.

Sacred Energy (聖光気, Sei Kō Ki, translated as Sacred Light Energy): During his fight against Yomi, Yusuke, remembering all of his friends supporting him, is able to mix his body's Demon Energy and Spirit Energy together allowing him to generate his own version of Sacred Energy, different from the version that was previously used by Sensui during the Chapter Black Saga. It's just as powerful, but hard to maintain for more than a few hours; however, that would turn out to be more than enough time for Yusuke's battle with Yomi. Koenma says it isn't Sacred Energy but an entirely different form of energy. In the Japanese version, it is actually implied to be Yusuke's own version of Sacred Energy.

Movie-Exclusive Techniques

Shot Gun Double Barrel: Yusuke channels his shotgun attack into both of his fists, and releases his energy out both at the same time. This creates twice the spread. This attack is only used in the first movie and in the English version only as he refers to it as Shotgun in the Japanese version.

Power Sphere Fusion: During the events of the the second movie, using the Power Sphere as a catalyst, Yusuke, Hiei, Kurama, and Kuwabara connect their souls as one. First Yusuke shoots a giant Spirit Gun bullet, which then unpredictably whips back like Kurama's rose whip when dodged. Then the bullet directly strikes the opponent, as if Kuwabara was lunging with his Spirit Sword. Finally, the giant burst of Spirit Energy is engulfed by Hiei's Dragon, giving it much more destructive force.

Sacred Energy: Although unnamed, in the second movie, an aura similar to the sacred energy surrounds Yusuke and the others when he sucessfully gains control over the power sphere. It also seemed to protect them from damage, against Yakumo's attacks

He also makes a crossover appearance in the last panel of Togashi Yoshiro's Hunter X Hunter yon-koma comic of 2011, where he asked about New Year's and is told he is in the wrong manga.

Although he is often overlooked, Yusuke is the youngest human to achieve S-Class energy levels. Even as a Mazoku he still will be the youngest to achieve this level of strength.

In the Korean dub, he is named "Jin-Jin" (진진). He is still called Yusuke in the manga translation and subbed anime.

He is called Eugene in the Filipino dub of the anime.

Yusuke's birthday falls some time between the second half of June and the start of July. This is supported by the fact that he left for Demon World on his birthday, and the fact that Kurama left a month after him, sometime between late July and early August to help Yomi's cause until the end of August. This also makes sense since the animal that manifests through his spirit energy (the phoenix) also rules the days between June 25 and July 24 of the Ancient Egyptian horoscope.

Keiko says he doesn't know how to whistle.

In the manga after defeating Nekobaba, Yusuke references Virtua Fighter by assuming a pose resembling a win pose from that series. His appearance changes to resemble Virtua Fighter's blocky graphics as well.

In the Japanese magazine Animage Anime Grand Prix popularity poll, Yusuke was ranked as the thirteenth most popular anime character in 1993, the tenth in 1994, and the eighth in 1995.

In March 2010, Yusuke was ranked sixteenth best male anime character of the 1990's by the Japanese magazine Newtype.

In Yu Yu Hakusho manga volume 12, Yusuke was voted 3rd most popular by 10,048 votes from fans.

Coincidentally the first name of the Yu Yu Hakusho music artist is Yusuke.

Yusuke's reiki is blue while his yoki is red

Yusuke's test score in episode 3 is 12%.

Yusuke has a tendency to stick his middle finger at people a lot

Yusuke, alongside Yomi, made a cameo as high school students in the anime Good Luck Girl! on episode 7. Their 60 hour long fight was also mentioned.

Gon Freecs, the main protagonist from Togashi's newer series Hunter X Hunter shares similarities with Yusuke

Both ranked 3rd on their respective series in a character popularity poll.

Both have transformed in their respective series: Yusuke into his Mazoku mode, Gon into an older version of himself.

Both are primarily associated with the color green.

Both have been raised by female family members: Yusuke by his mother, Gon by Mito.

Both of their fathers were not in their life as children (though Gon meets his father later, and Yusuke meets his ancestral father)

Both are similar to Son Goku, the protagonist of Dragon Ball

Yusuke is similar to Son Goku, the protagonist of Dragon Ball in the following ways:

Both have a love of fighting and generally only fight for themselves

Both aren't very intelligent outside of basic education when it comes to academics but survive off their dealings in cooking (Yusuke with his noodle shop and Goku with his radish growing in the 2008 OVA special)

Both die twice

Both learn about and accept their non-human heritage (Yusuke with his demon blood and Goku with his Saiyan's when the villain Raditz tells him who he really is)

Both use a blue energy blast as their signature move (in Goku's case, the epynomous Kamehameha)

Both struggle with the concept of killing but learn to do it (Yusuke during the Chapter Black arc with his fights against Doctor and Sensui & Goku sparing villains' lives before becoming stern enough to make that decision in his iconic fight with the villain Freeza)

Both gain a long-haired form after dying a 2nd time (Goku reaches Super Saiyan 3 during the final arc of his series in the manga)